CEPA Working Paper No. 20-10 - September 2020 - The Dynamic Effects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Student learning often declines or stagnates during summer, driving demand for intensive summer learning programs. Existing research shows that typical programs with narrow academic focus and short subject coverage yield only modest achievement gains and no improvements in engagement-related outcomes. This quasi-experimental study evaluates Aim High, a mature, voluntary summer program for low-income middle school students, combining broad academic content with a social-emotional curriculum and year-to-year scaffolding. Results show fewer unexcused absences, lower chronic absenteeism and suspensions, modest ELA score gains, and growing behavioral engagement over repeated summers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages49

Reading Time2 h 3 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background and Motivation

Summer learning loss and out-of-school factors

Prior program evaluations and gaps

Study Design and Program Description

Aim High program for low-income middle school students

CEPA Working Paper No. 20-10 The Dynamic Eﬀects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School AUTHORS Jaymes Pyne Stanford University Erica Messner Stanford University Thomas S. Dee Stanford University ABSTRACT The evidence that student learning declines sharply (or stagnates) during the summer has motivated a substantial interest in programs that provide intensive academic instruction during the summer. However, the existing literature suggests that such programs, which typically focus on just one or two subjects, have modest eﬀects on students’achievement and no impact on measures of their engagement in school. In this quasi-experimental study, we present evidence on the educational impact of a unique and mature summer learning program that serves low-income middle school students and features unusual academic breadth and a social emotional curriculum with year-to-year scaﬀolding. Our results indicate that this program led to substantial reductions in unexcused absences, chronic absenteeism and suspensions and a modest gain in ELA test scores. We ﬁnd evidence that the gains in behavioral engagement grow over time and with additional summers of participation. Our results also suggest that these eﬀects were particularly concentrated among boys and Latinx students. Acknowledgements-We thank Jorge Ruiz de Velasco and Liz Newman for contributing to the implementation of this study, and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco and Nancy Mancini for comments on this manuscript. The work was funded by a grant to The John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities (Gardner Center) by Aim High, a nonproﬁt, 501(c)3 organization that implements the summer learning program studied in this paper. The authors have analyzed and disseminated these results freely and independent of approval from Aim High, as stipulated in a Letter of Agreement between the Gardner Center and Aim High. None of the authors have a ﬁnancial interest in Aim High. VERSION September 2020 Suggested citation: Pyne, J. , Messner, E., & Dee, T.S. (2020). The Dynamic Eﬀects of a Summer Learning Program on Behavioral Engagement in School. (CEPA Working Paper No.20-10) . Retrieved from Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis: [http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp20-10](http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp20-10) 1 One of the most important stylized facts in education research is that out-of-school factors make substantial contributions to students’ learning trajectories. A prominent and widely discussed piece of evidence in support of this claim is the existence of large but variable drops in learning during the summer. For example, Kuhfeld (2019), using adaptive and vertically scaled assessment data from over 3.4 million elementary and middle school students, finds that the learning of the median student falls over the summer by “one to two months in reading and a little more than one to three months of school-year learning in math”(p. 27).1 The evidence indicating that student learning often falls (or at least stagnates) during the summer has motivated a broad and long-standing interest in the design features, impact, and cost-effectiveness of summer learning programs. The ongoing schooling disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have only amplified the need to understand how summer learning opportunities can best support students. For example, there is a new interest in scaling up summer “vacation academies” for children who would otherwise not make up lost school time (Schueler, 2020) . The summer learning programs studied to date typically target their services to students with disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and feature several hours a day of academic instruction offered five days a week over a period of four to five weeks. An extensive experimental and quasiexperimental evaluation literature suggests that these intensive programs have only modest effects on subsequent measures of student achievement (i.e., effect sizes of 0.10 or l

FAQs

What problem motivates the study of summer learning programs?

Student learning often declines or stagnates during summer, creating strong interest in designing programs that can offset learning loss and support schooling engagement.

How does Aim High differ from typical summer learning programs?

Aim High serves low-income middle school students and uses unusually broad academic instruction alongside a social-emotional curriculum, with year-to-year scaffolding.

What main outcomes did the program affect?

The program reduced unexcused absences, chronic absenteeism, and suspensions, produced modest gains in ELA test scores, and showed engagement improvements that grew over time with additional participation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel